A Quiet Escape
by Homesnork
Summary: Tooter and Chris get abducted by a snorkeater and they have to escape before they're dinner


We join a certain green snork in a park in Snorkland. Just a typical day of fish watching for Tooter. He admires many a fish swimming by. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary. He just thinks fish are pretty. He suddenly spots a fish he'd never seen. He excitedly went closer to get a closer look. Little did he know, there was a snork-eater out prowling. Tooter was too entertained with the pretty fish. He whistled a tune at it and it whistled back at him.

No too far away, two other snorks were swimming by some nearby buildings. They were in a hurry to be somewhere.

"Hurry Chris! We have a show to do!" Rio, the curly-haired blue snork said

Nearly out of breath, Chris swam as fast as she could, however not as fast as Rio was swimming. It didn't help that she was also carrying a large camcorder. Chris and Rio swam past a hot dog cart. Chris backed up and pointed to it and grinned and nodded as if asking to stop.

"Fair enough!" Rio looked at his watch "I guess we have enough time for you to take a snack break" He sighed and looked at his reflection in a nearby window on a shop. He started fixing his thick curly hair a bit and straightened his bowtie.

Chris approached the cart and smiled at the vendor. She held up 3 fingers. The vendor searched around in the cart and pulled out 3 hot dogs in its arms dropping them back on the cart.

Chris handed him 3 clams and then the vendor grabbed her. The camcorder dropped from her bag however she was too frightened to pick it up.

Chris was shocked but she tried to wiggle out of his grip. Turns out, the vendor was actually a crudely made hand puppet. The ground began to shake beneath her. Then suddenly the snork eater emerged from the sand drooling at her. "Well, well, today must be my lucky day." He said poking her stomach. "Looks like I'm eating good, tonight!".

Chris was paralysed from fear. Rio finished fixing his hair and swam off. "C'mon Chris!" He didn't realise that she had been snorknapped. The snorkeater took off with her. Chris almost let out a cry, then the monster stuffed the hotdogs in her mouth. She was far too nervous to eat now.

Tooter had wandered off a ways following the pretty fish. They whistled at each other and seemed to be playing a game of sorts. The snork eater heard his tooting and went in his direction. Upon seeing Tooter he went after him fixing to scoop him up in his free hand.

Tooter looked behind him and saw him coming. He let out a loud honk and swam for his life, with the little fish following him. Sadly he wasn't quick enough. Tooter sqeaked when the monster grabbed him. "Just when I thought my day couldn't get any luckier.." The monster chuckled . "Mama always told me to eat my greens". Tooter honked in anger at the suggestion. The snork eater cringed in pain at the sound. "I gotta special little house for yous twos!" The monster grinned at the two snorks as he went on his way.

Meanwhile, Casey and Junior was in the park searching for Tooter.

"Where could he be?" She asked looking around. "We've looked everywhere! It's not like him to just suddenly vanish".

"I don't know.." Junior replied in his usual manner. "All I know is that little brocolli stalk owes me 5 clams!"

"Oh, Junior. Do you ever think about anything except money?"

They swam back into town and spotted the broken hotdog cart and Chris' camera.

"What happened here!" Casey asked picking up the broken camcorder.

"Well I know Dimwit's not involved" Junior snickered, pointing to the cart "There's still hot dogs here!"

"Junior! This looks serious!" Casey scolded him examining the camcorder. "This isn't a cheap camera. I doubt someone would just drop it and not miss it"

"Let me see it!" Junior snatched it away. "Looks like one from the TV station. Was there a riot here or something and no one told me?"

Then Rio, in a panic, swam that way. He stopped when he saw Casey and Junior. He started babbling incoherently.

"Hey Reefman, what's got your hair in a bunch? You lose your hairbrush again?" Junior snarked and Casey rolled her eyes.

"My Cameragirl, Chris! She's missing!" Rio calmed down a bit and cleaned his glasses. "I got to the studio and she was missing! It's a good thing another news reporter was there to take my spot."

"Wait.. Chris is missing!" Casey asked "When did you last see her?"

"She was right here grabbing herself something to eat and I thought she followed me!"

Casey handed Rio the broken camcorder "Well, I believe this might be her camera"

Rio paniced again upon seeing the camcorder and noticing the broken cart. "She must be in serious danger!"

"You wouldn't have happened to have seen Tooter either would you?" Casey asked Rio hoping he'd calm down enough to answer.

"Tooter..? No, I haven't ." Rio said turning around to look for Chris again.

"We haven't seen that snork since early this morning when we went fish watching" Casey wondered looking at the broken cart. She followed Rio. "Rio, about when did you last see Chris?"

"It was about... 10:30 or so." Rio said looking around the area.

"Sounds fishy.. I wonder if there's a connection" Casey said also looking around. "Well all we can do is keep looking!" She looked back to find Junior raiding the cart for any cash. She grabbed him by the wrist and insisted he come.

The snorkeater took Tooter and Chris back to his home. He had the worst grin on his face as he approached another snorkeater.

"Hey, Ma! Look at what I found!" He said coming in the door.

"Whaaaat!" an older snorkeater sitting at the kitchen table said -nearly shouting- and putting down a newspaper. She was hard of hearing. "Ya need to speak louder dal'ling!"

He uncovered his ears when she stopped shouting and sat a metal cage on the table with the 2 snorks he captured. His mother smiled at his catch. "So ya finally caught something! I'm proud of ya son!" She said examining the terrified creatures. "They look like they'll make a fine meal! Especially the blue one, she's nice and plump!" She chuckled. Chris frowned at her, rather offended. "Set them on the counter, sweetie. I'll get the pot ready!" Mother instructed.

The young snorkeater sat the cage on the counter. "You twos hang tight. Gonna make you a nice dinner!" He said licking his lips. He left to help his mother.

Tooter growled at him and rattled the cage. Chris sat in the corner shivering and crying in fear. Tooter sat next to her and put his arm around her trying to assure her they'd get out of it. She looked up and examined the metal bars they were surrounded by and noticed a key sitting on the table. The snorkeater came back with some flaky crumbs and dropped them in the cage.

"Enjoy your dinner, snorks! It'll be your last." He said mockingly. Tooter loudly honked a series of profanity at him and the snork eater covered his ears whimpering in pain. "Ma, can we cooks the green one first?"

Chris nervously resumed observing the bars. It gave her an idea. She took Tooter's hand and tried to squeeze between the bars but she couldn't fit through them. She then pointed to the key on the table. Tooter nodded and tried to squeeze though. It wasn't easy but being a little smaller he managed to get through. He swam to the table and hid behind a bowl and waited til the monsters weren't looking. He swam over to the key and grabbed. It was a very heavy key though. Much heavier than it looked. Little Tooter struggled to carry it over to the cage to free Chris. The young snorkeater caught him in the act and grabbed him causing him to drop the key. Tooter struggled to get out of his grip but the snorkeater shoved him into a jar and screwed the lid on tightly. He sat the jar next to the cage. Chris, terrified, started crying again.

Outside the snorkeater's house, the little fish finally caught up to find Tooter. It looked in the open window to find him in the jar and started to go in but saw the snorkeaters standing right there preparing the spices inside a large pot.

"Now, not too much spice, da'ling!" Mother instructed her son.

"I know that. Just tells me what you need me to add." The son smiled excitedly

"What was that!" Mother yelled again making her son cover his ears in pain.

The little fish had an idea after watching the two for a few minutes. It swam in quietly next to the cage and the jar to get the two snorks attention. Tooter, upon seeing the fish, excitedly waved. The fish winked at Tooter and swam over to a nearby stereo. It pushed a button on it and it played extremely loud music.

"Ow! My ears!" The snorkeater shouted covering his ears, dropping the ingredients everywhere. His mother however smiled and hummed with the music, ignoring her sons complaints as she stirred the pot preparing the vegitables. He quickly went to the stereo to turn it off when the fish turned on the tv in a similar fashion, full blast.

"Do ya have to have the shellovision and the stereo going full blast all at once?" His mother shouted. Seeing as the young snorkeater was busy trying to shut off the sounds the fish knocked over the jar breaking it releasing Tooter. Tooter swam up to the cage, frightened and frantic, looking for the key. Chris struggled trying to squeeze herself through the bars but ended up getting stuck. Tooter then tried pulling Chris out but he was interrupted by the young monster.

"You!" the snorkeater yelled at Tooter. "You're a little troublemaker, aren'cha!" He then grabbed Tooter and took him over to the boiling pot. "I'm gonna make sure you don't make no more trouble!" the monster said holding him over the boiling pot. Tooter shivered in fright.

Chris, upon seeing her friend in danger, tried even harder to push herself through the bars, however, it was seemingly impossible.

"Don't struggle too much!" the older snorkeater said mockingly pushing Chris back into the cage."You'll be dinner soon enough". Chris fell back weak and exhauseted.

The little fish then got in the old snorkeater's face, teasing her. She swatted it away but it swam circles around her. She kept swatting at it though.

"You and your little friend will make a delicious meal!" The younger snorkeater chuckled "Any last words!" Tooter then saw the mother franticly swatting at the fish and stumbling around, coming that way. He grinned and let out a loud honk. The monster let go of him and covered his ears as his mother fell on him causing him to spill everything from the pot onto them. Tooter swam away quickly to get the key to free Chris. He struggled to lift it into the keyhole but was able to unlock it. Tooter went inside to find Chris passed out from all struggling. He tried waking her up and she groaned in pain. He then decided to try and pull her out of the metal prison of the cage. It wasn't easy for him to pull her but he did it. She came around shortly after he gave her some of the flaky crumbs that was given to them earlier.

"Dinner's gettin' away!" Mother yelled spotting the 2 snorks escaping.

"My ears are ringin' somethin' awfuls!" the other cringed.

Tooter and Chris swam as fast as they could to get away from the monsters. The fish followed. The monsters soon followed but the two snorks were long gone by that point.

"Darn! I really had my eye on that fat one too!" the mother said dragging her son back into the house.

"Huh? What was that? Oww! My ears! They still ringin'!"

Back in Snorkland, after searching the place over, Casey, Junior and Rio went to Corky.

"We've searched for them everywhere, all day!" Casey said to Corky.

"Well I hate to tell you this.. but I have gotten reports of a snorkeater prowling about." Corky sighed.

Casey gasped and Rio paced grabbing his thick mane of hair mumbling nervously.

"Gee, for a news reporter, you sure don't handle well under pressure" Junior said making matters worse for the already stressed Snork.

"It's different when I have a camera in front of my face, Junior." Rio said "I have to be calm on camera!".

"I hope they're alright and stuff" Junior sighed. Then he heard some distant honking behind him. "I can almost hear Tooter's little squeaks now".

Casey looked behind and grinned seeing Tooter and Chirs coming their way. "Hey! You're alright!"

The two non-speaking snorks grinned back.

"Chris! Oh thank Neptune!" Rio said excitedly hugging her, "I thought I was going to have to find a new cameraman!"

"Where the shell have you two been all day! We've been worried sick!" Junior exclaimed to them.

"Oh, Junior.. If only they could tell us" Casey giggled.


End file.
